A primer on Portuguese names

I don’t have any real Portuguese characters to date, but my large, extended Polański family stays in Lisbon over September 1939–July 1940 while waiting for their golden visas to America. Everyone who could ran to Lisbon to escape the Nazis, and the city served as an exit port from Europe for many would-be immigrants.

Surnames:

Portuguese names in Portugal follow the Spanish naming system, wherein women keep their birth surnames and may add on the husband’s family name, with children getting both parents’ names. It’s currently the fashion to use four surnames, one from each grandparent. In Brazil, it’s more common to only have one surname, unless it’s an area with mostly descendants of Portuguese immigrants.

In olden times, it was the fashion to give a girl her mother’s family name and a boy his father’s family name. This is a naming convention I’m a big fan of, alternating surnames on children by sex or on every other child. That way, both parents get to pass their names on.

From the late 19th century till about the 1970s, it became more and more common for Portuguese women to take their husbands’ names, as a way of copying the European upper-classes. Happily, this trend has died out, and the old ways have resumed. In Brazil, the custom goes both ways

Many surnames start with De, Do, Dos, Da, and Das. Origins include patronymics (frequently ending in -iz or -es), geography, religion, profession, and nicknames. Reportedly, many orphans were assigned the surname dos Santos (from the saints). Many Jewish Portuguese surnames are Portuguese versions of Arabic and Hebrew names.

My other blog, Onomastics Outside the Box

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Writer of 20th century historical fiction sagas and series, with elements of women's fiction, romance, and Bildungsroman. I was born in the wrong generation on several fronts. I'm crunchy within reason, predominantly left-handed, and an aspiring hyper polyglot. Oh, and I've been a passionate Russophile for over 20 years, as well as a passionate Estophile, Armenophile, Magyarphile, Kartvelophile, Persophile, Slavophile, and Nipponophile.

For the climax of my contemporary historical WIP, I'd love to talk to any Duranies who went to the 13 March 1984 Sing Blue Silver show in Hartford, CT. I'd be so grateful to have first-person sources provide any information about what that snowstorm and concert were like!

I usually post on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays. ALL SATURDAY POSTS ARE PRE-SCHEDULED. I NEVER POST IN REAL TIME ON SHABBOS.